Laika
by TheNightManager
Summary: The tragic story never told before of the first mammal to ever leave the planet. (Retelling of the true tale of the dog Laika in the world of Zootopia)
1. Chapter 1

**AIMING FOR THE STARS**

"Granny, we're back!" Shouted the snow leopard cub as he ran inside the room.

"Alexei, it's pretty late." Kira simply noted, glancing at the small cat over her shoulder, quickly returning her attention to the soup she was cooking; she wasn't scolding him, though, Alexei knew that much.  
The old goat only wanted to know they had been away so long.

"I know, granny, but Mr. Pawlenko gave us extra money to help him clean the shop after the closure." He replied, reaching Kira's side and showing her a bunch of banknotes.

"You and your sister are such workaholic..." The goat chuckled, lightly shaking her head. "Where is she, by the way?"

"On the roof, where else?" Alexei replied, rolling his eyes.

"Will you please look over the soup for a few minutes while I go fetch her?" Kira asked kindly, passing the ladle to the snow leopard, who nodded and quickly grabbed a box to stand on in order to reach the pot placed over the old stove.

Kira grabbed her cane and slowly began to move across the room, passing from the small kitchen to the living room, where a dozen of other kits where playing: a bear and stoat were having a stare contest, with the latter trying to cheat in every single possible way; an hare was playing chess with a reindeer, with two twin artic shrews and a pika covering the role of a few pawns that had been lost long before; a raccoon and a bat were drawing with crayons.

"Kits, start to clean up, dinner is almost ready!" Kira told them while she began to climb the stairs leading to the upper floors.

"Yes, granny!" A chorus of voices replied to her request, and a sudden commotion could be heard as the multitude of young animals got in motion to do as the goat had told them.

As more chuckles escaped her lips, she made her way to the second floor of the small, old house, crumbling wallpaper and mould and turned the knobs of the meta door leading to the rooftop, which opened with a loud creak.

Kira's lips curled in a soft smile at the familiar view before her eyes: a young wolf was sitting on the ledge, her legs hanging over the street two stories below; her head was pointed upwards and she was staring inside a spyglass.

"It's getting cold, you'll come down with a flu if you aren't careful, Laika." Kira told her as she reached her side and putting her shawl around the kit's shoulder.

"Oh, granny!" She said startled, almost dropping her scope. "I didn't hear you coming."

Kira chuckled. "Why am I not surprised?" she replied, ruffling the fur between Laika's ears.

"Granny, stop!" She complained, even if the smile on her muzzle betrayed her amusement.

"Alexei told me you managed to gain some extra money today." Kira stated. "I hope you two aren't overworking, you are supposed to have fun and play with other kits at your age."

"We both know we can always use more money, the orphanage is still standing by miracle." She sighed sadly. "Beside, this is what I do for fun!"

The smile returned on her snout as she lifted the spy glass.

Kira returned her smile, her mind bringing up the memories of Laika's eighth birthday: the wolf had always shown a fascination for the astronomy, so Kira and Laika's siblings had saved some money to buy her a telescope.  
Unfortunately, the money weren't enough for that, so they had to settle for a spyglass instead, but it was welcomed nonetheless by Laika's absolute joy, and her happy expression was still impressed in the old goat memory as one of the best moment of her life.

Six years had passed since then, and Laika had yet to grow tired of going up there to peer at the stars every clear night.

And that night was perfect for stargazing: not a single cloud could be seen, and the dim light of the few sparse lampposts down in the street didn't provide enough light pollution to be a concern for the young wolf.

' _One of the few perks of living in this part of the town.'_ Laika thought bitterly, returning her attention to the stars above her.

"Oh, my sweet _Kudrjavka,_ you don't need to carry all the weight of the world on your shoulders: we are a family, and we help each other, because that's what a family does." She kindly told her, enveloping her in a warm hug.

Laika returned the hug for a few seconds, until a powerful sneeze escaped from the goat.

"Looks like you'll need this more than me!" Laika laughed, handing the shawl back to the old goat.

"Get to my age, and then we'll see who'll laugh!" Kira snorted, taking her shawl and throwing it over herself.

"Anyway, I've come here to tell you dinner is ready. You better come down quickly, or Viktor will eat your bowl too, you what he's like: I swear, one day he'll end up eating me as well!" She chuckle as she began her descent to the ground floor.

Laika gave one last glance to the starry night, before strolling after the old goat.

Later, that night, as she laid in the lower bed of a bunk bed while all of her siblings in that room were asleep, Laika stared at the slates over her head: there, she had glued the picture of a beautiful, young artic vixen with piercing amber eyes.

She had cut it out from a paper a few months before, from an article praising the deeds of _"Albina, the first mammal to reach 85 km height in sub-orbital flight"._

"One day, I'll go up there too..." She whispered to herself, before closing her tired eyes.

* * *

She had always been told that mammals saw their whole life flashing before their eyes shortly before their death.

Instead, Laika saw those few minutes. _'I wonder why...'_ She thought, but even thinking caused her pain, and was becoming harder to do along with breathing.

 _'Maybe is because back then everything was simpler, and happier.'_ She thought sombrely.

Clenching her teeth to not howl in pain, she turned her head to the left, and looked outside the porthole.

 _'If this is the last thing I'll ever see, though, it's not half bad'_ And that thought managed to bring a weak smile on her snout.

* * *

 **FAREWELL, LAIKA**

"Please, I need those drugs!" Laika begged the pharmacist.

"I'm sorry kit, but I've already enough debts with me. Pay me, and I'll give you the meds." The tiger replied, real regret in his voice.  
The young wolf was about to retort, but another voice came quicker than hers.

"I'll pay for it." An adult wolf said, smiling at Laika.

"Mr. Pawlenko..." Laika trailed off; she didn't want the other wolf to pay for her, she had always gained the money she needed by herself. But this time, she had to accept.

"...Thank you." Laika finally replied with a weak smile.

After Mr. Pawlenko had bought the medicine for her and condoms for himself (which had made Laika blush severely), they got out in the chilly winter air. Their feet sank in the soft snow that covered the streets of Saint Petersbork, and their breath condensed in small clouds before their noses.

"Thank you again for purchasing the medicine." She told him as they started down the sidewalk.

"Don't worry, that's the least I could do after all the years you and the other kids have been helping me in the shop." He replied with a kind smile, which fell shortly after as he asked: "How's Kira?"

Laika's ears fell down and she sighed sadly. "Worse than yesterday, but probably better than tomorrow."

"I'm sorry." Mr. Pawlenko put a paw on her shoulder.

"Well, I'm not expecting her to get better anytime soon. This" she raised the paw holding the newly-purchased medicine "is just a palliative. What granny really needs is way too expansive for us to ever be able to afford it."

They stopped walking as they reached the next intersection. "This is were our ways part." The older wolf announced.

He knelt down, to level his eyes with the one of the younger wolf: despite her being eighteen, she had remained quite short. "Don't worry, she is strong, and I know you won't give up until you've found a way to help her."

Laika smiled shyly at the compliment, and Mr. Pawlenko got up. "Now, I must really go! My wife is waiting for me!" He told her with a sly grin, nodding at the small bag containing his purchase from the drugstore, and Laika found herself blushing again.

After parting from Mr. Pawlenko, she picked up the pace, and reached the orphanage: from it came a banging sound, letting her know Alexei was at work fixing something. That sound had been a constant for the past two months, since new repairing were needed almost on a daily basis.

"I'm home!" Laika announced to no one in particular. It was early in the evening, and most of her sibling were still out doing their gig, but they would soon be home.

"Hi Laika!" A voice welcomed her from the kitchen: it was Viktor, busy making dinner.

"Hi Vik!" She replied to the bear. "I'm checking on granny, then I'll come right back to help you!"

She headed for the first floor, meeting Alexei on the way, hammer in his paw.  
"So, what broke down this time?" The wolf asked annoyed.

"Last night's snowfall had creaked the roof of two bedroom, but this time I fixed it before it gave in entirely." He replied, sighing. "You know that I cannot keep this place standing for much longer using only wooden planks, nails and duck tape, right?"

"Well, I have faith in your handymammal skills." She replied with a grin, putting a paw on his shoulder.

The snow leopard blushed a little and quickly changed the subject. "I see you've managed to get the drugs once again." He noted, pointing at the bag Laika was holding.

"Only thanks to Mr. Pawlenko active sexual life." She replied, laughing at the confused expression on the snow leopard face. Her laughter died soon, however, as her eyes fell upon the door leading to Kira's room.

"Today was good." Alexei told her, as if he could read her mind. "She even got up and made lunch for me and the others."

A smile appeared on Laika's muzzle at the news, but it began to waver moments later and before she knew, she was sobbing uncontrollably.

"Hey, it's all right." Alexei told her in a soothing voice, hugging her. Laika burrowed her forehead in Alexei's chest, holding to his shirt.

"I don't want her to die!" She blurted out between sobs.

"Everything will turn out fine, and you know why do I know that? Because I have you by my side. You are the bravest and smarter mammal I know, and if anyone can find a way to solve our problems, that's you." Alexei told her in a warm, kind voice, stroking the back of her head.

Finally, Laika managed to recollect herself, parting from Alexei and wiping the tears from her eyes. "Thank you, Alexei. I'm glad to have you by my side as well."

Alexei simply smiled, blushing again; he was of the same age as Laika, and they were the oldest out of the kits living there. The leopard was the only one Laika allowed to see her worries and fragilities, and same thing went for Alexei: only a few days ago, it had been him who had had an emotional breakdown, and Laika had been the one to soothe him.

"I-uhm-better go and see if I'm needed downstairs." He stammered, clearly embarrassed by the words of the wolf, and he ran down the stairs, almost tripping.  
Twice.

" _Silly leopard..._ " Laika thought shaking her head slightly and chuckling. Then, she took a deep breath and stepped inside Kira's room.

The old goat was in the bed, under the blankets, the shadow of the mammal she had been once: she was so thin one could count all her bones whereas she once was quite hefty; the rhythmic raising and falling of her chest was the only hint that she was still alive.

"Hey, granny, are you awake?" Laika whispered.

"No." She replied with her usual chuckle, which turned in a terrible coughing fit.

Laika resisted the urge to grimace at the display, instead putting up the best smile she could and sitting on the bed next to Kira.

"I've got more meds. They should be enough for another month." Laika announced.

"I hope you aren't starving your siblings just to get those." Kira replied with a scowl.

"Nope, we are eating just fine. Mr. Pawlenko kindly paid for them this time."

"And what about the house? Are you being cheap on the repairing?" The goat inquired.

"Alexei can take care of those just fine." She retorted.

"What good will those drugs do when this whole place will crumble on my head and on the ones of your siblings?!"

"I'm sorry, are you mad at me for trying to keep you alive?!" Laika growled.

"I am mad at you because you are wasting money! I'm going to die anyway, you might as well use it to keep the other kids warm and well fed!"

" _Wasting money?!"_ Laika said outraged. "Your life matter to all of us, and we are all more than willing to make a few sacrifices! We need you!"

"No, you don't! Your siblings have you and Alexei! You can take care of them just as good as I used to!" Kira replied.

They stared at one another for a long time, in the complete silence of the dimly lighted room.

"But I could save you..." Laika mumbled.

"We have already talked about it. The answer is still no." Kira replied flatly.

"The aerospace program is looking for new recruits for the next mission They pay is incredibly good and there are basically no requirement other than being over 18!" She explained for the nth time to the goat. "I could fulfil my dream _and_ help you and the kits!"

"Oh, trust me, nothing would make me happier than seeing your dream come true, but haven't you wondered where is the catch ?" Kira asked her. "There's only one reason mammals would pay such a huge amount of money, and that is to make other mammals shut their mouth; you'd almost certainly be walking in a death trap!" Another violent fit of cough shook the goat.

Laika decided against continuing the discussion with Kira; instead, she gave the goat a kiss on her cheek and tucked her in. "Fine, granny, I won't go. But I won't give up on you either. Now, rest."

The wolf got up and, before she had left the room, Kira was already snoring.  
Once outside the room, Laika closed the door behind her and leant against it, fighting back the tears once again forming in the corner of her eyes.

A few hours after dinner, Laika was sitting on the ledge of the rooftop, gazing at the stars with her spyglass, like every time she had needed to reflect.  
 _"What am I supposed to do? I can't let granny die, but at the same time... she could be right..."_  
Her ears perked up at the sound of the door leading downstairs opening with the usual creaking.

"Polina, what are you doing still up?" The wolf asked.

"I had a bad dream." The 6 years old deer replied.

"I see." Laika replied thoughtfully.  
"Here, come sit next to me." She said patting a spot at her side with her paw, an idea taking shape in her head.  
The small doe did as she was told.

"When I was your age, to forget about bad dream, I used to come up here and look at all those beautiful stars with this." She told Polina handing her the spyglass.

Polina carefully took it and looked through it. Laika gently moved the doe's head to direct her to various constellations and planets: she showed her the Big Dipper, Venus, the Cygnus, Jupiter.

Polina awed in amazement every time Laika showed her a new one.

"...and that is Andromeda" Laika said, pointing to another group of stars.

"What is an 'Andromeda'?" Polina asked, not familiar with the word.

Laika chuckled. "It's not a thing, it's a name: Andromeda was a princess."

At the word 'princess', the attention of the deer drifted from the stars to Laika. "Really?" She asked with wonder.

Laika nodded. "According to the myth, her city was plagued by a terrible sea monster sent by an enraged god: it destroyed the crops and devoured mammals. In order to make it stop, an oracle told to the king of the city that Andromeda had to be scarified to the monster. In order to save her city, she wad willing to give her life, and she was chained to a rock and offered to the monster."

"She was really brave..." The doe said.

"Yes, she was. And her bravery was rewarded: an hero arrived just in time to save her and kill the monster. And they lived happily ever after." Laika finished her story.

The wolf smiled as a yawn escaped from the doe's mouth.

"I think it's time for you to go to bed,now." Laika commented, and Polina was about to give the scope back to the wolf, but she shook her head. "You keep it, in case of more bad dreams."

Then, Laika took her paw and walked her back to hear bed. "Goodnight." She whispered kissing the doe on the forehead.

Once the wolf had left the bedroom, she had made up her mind on what she had to do; she went straight to her room and, as quiet as she could, she began to pack a small bag with her few belongings: some clothes and some books about astronomy she had _'forgot'_ to bring back to the library.

"So, you are leaving?"

Laika froze when she heard Alexei's voice.

"Yes." She finally replied after a few seconds of silence. "Are you going to stop me?"

The snow leopard knelt beside her and looked at her in the eyes, before smiling and handing her a few banknotes.

"Like if anyone could stop you from doing anything." He scoffed.

Alexei got up and offered her his paw, which she took gladly, and Laika never left it until they reached the front door.  
Laika opened it with a trembling paw, and the cold air of the night wrapped their bodies.

"I wish you would stay." Alexei said aloud, staring outside.

Laika gulped nervously.  
"Why don't you ask me to, then?" She replied, looking at him.

Alexei turned his head to face Laika, then cupped her cheeks with his paw and leant over to gently kiss her.  
Laika stiffened in surprise at first, but then kissed him back, wrapping her arms around his neck.  
When they ended the kiss, she realized they were both crying.

"I couldn't ask you that, because I love you too much to bare seeing you trapped inside this cage. You are not meant for this life." He told her, stroking her cheek with his thumb.

Alexei let go of her, and Laika stepped outside.  
"Goodbye, Alexei. Take care of the others while I'm gone." She said, before turning and starting to walk away toward the nearest bus stop.

"Farewell, Laika." She heard Alexei say at her back.  
She didn't turn around, however, as she knew that if she had done so, she wouldn't have had the strength to leave ever again. Instead, she began to run, tears clouding her sight.

* * *

For a long time, she had thought that she was like Andromeda, ready to selflessly give her life to keep her loved ones save.  
Now, however, she wasn't sure anymore.

She instead felt more like Icarus: she had been warned, and yet, she had chosen to ignore the words of the mammals who loved her only to follow her foolish dream.

 _'That's a funny thing to think of, when you are about to die.'_ She thought, as the burning sensation once again spread all over her body, forcing a pained scream from her lips.

* * *

 **Notes:** so, this a little project I came up with some time ago, and I decide to finally write it down. Originally, it was meant to be a one shot, but now I decided to make it a bit longer, adding some backstory for Laika.  
Anyway, it won't be too long, I've planned three, maybe four chapters.

I hope you'll enjoy it!


	2. Chapter 2

**THE TRIAL**

Laika was pedaling as fast as she could, barely able to keep her eyes open due to the snowstorm currently raging around her.

It had been two days since she had left her home, travelling night and day on buses and trains to manage to get the Zooviet Aerospace Centre, but she had missed the connection with the last shuttle by minutes.

Desperate, she had used her last remaining money to buy a rusty bike, with which she had headed for the Z.A.C.

Halfway through, though, she had been engulfed by the blizzard, and more than once powerful gusts of wind had almost thrown her on the ground.

But she had persisted: today was the last day to enlist for the program, that's why she had had to go without further discussion with her family. She couldn't waste that chance.

The front wheel encountered a patch of ice and Laika lost control of the bike, tumbling in the snow.

She quickly shook as much snow from her fur as she could, since she wasn't a fan of hypothermia, then recovered her bike: she immediately noticed that the chain had broke in the fall.

"Oh, come on!" She shouted out in exasperation, throwing the broken vehicle away.

She turned in the direction she thought, or better she _hoped_ , the Z.A.C. was, since she hadn't seen even one indication for about one hour due to the reduced visibility, and began walking, struggling against the cold and the wind.

An eternity passed before the shape of a building began to emerge from the whiteness surrounding the wolf.

With her last strength, Laika reached the wall of the facility and began walking near it, in an attempt to find an entrance or at least something to be saved from the storm.

She finally found a metal double door, but when she pushed the crash bar to open it, it turned out to be locked from the inside.

"Please, open up!" She cried out, trying to tower over the howling of the wind, and banging on the door. "Please, can anyone hear me?!"

Her wet clothes were starting to freeze against her fur, and the cold was starting to get to her bones.  
"P-P-Please, I b-b-beg you!" She weakly said, her teeth rattling out of her control.  
She leaned against the door with her back, curling up to try to warm herself a bit; keeping her eyes open was becoming harder with each passing seconds.

"Please..." She murmured, but the howl of the wind was so loud that not even she heard that.  
She fought the urge to sleep, while her body shook madly in a desperate attempt to save itself from freezing to death.

She began to bang the back of her head against to metallic door since she hadn't the strength to get back to her feet.

 _BANG! BANG! BANG!  
_ Her eyes closed, her will defeated by the fatigue permeating her flesh.

 _BANG!...BANG!...BANG!  
_ Moving had become an almost unbearable effort.

 _BANG!...Bang!..._  
She stopped, too tired and exhausted to keep it up.  
In her numbness, she barely registered her body falling backward as the door opened.  
She felt paws grabbing her and lifting her, before passing out.

* * *

Laika woke up to a pleasant sensation she had feared she would have never felt again: warmth.

She blinked a couple of times, shielding her eyes with a paw from the bright neon lamp right above her: in doing so, she realized she had a needle stuck in her forearm, connected to an infusion bag.  
Her old clothes were gone, and a hospital gown had taken their place; that, and a duvet, where the only things covering her.

"Finally, you are awake."

Laika rapidly turned her head toward the voice, only then realizing she wasn't alone in the room, but she immediately regretted as her head began to spin.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." The voice chuckled.

The young wolf kept her eyes closed until her nausea was gone; when she opened them again, she was staring at a canid with reddish fur, slightly shorter than her, wearing a lab coat.

"Who are you?" She asked warily while trying to figure out _what_ he was: he almost looked like a cross between a fox and a wolf, but Laika knew full well that such a thing was impossible.

"I'm Doctor Vladimir Yazdogsky, head of the scientific division of the Z.A.C," he replied with a smile " and I'm a dhole if that's what you were trying to figure out."

Laika realized she had been caught staring, and quickly moved her gaze away from him.  
"I'm sorry, I've never seen your species before."

"Well, there aren't many of us left, unfortunately." He smiled sadly.  
"BUT let's talk about you." Vladimir quickly added a spark of curiosity lighting in his eyes. "Your clothes were in pretty bad shape, and one could think you are some kind of hobo."

Laika lowered her head in shame at those words.

"But appearances can be misleading." The dhole added, smirking. "Because I wonder, what would a homeless do here, in the middle of nowhere, with astronomy books in her backpack? So, my young, mysterious friend, what's your story?"

The wolf couldn't help but smile herself: the doctor seemed a really jolly and kind mammal.  
"My name's Laika. I'm here to enlist for the space mission." She said.

"Well, there was a perfectly fine shuttle to get here for the volunteers, why didn't you take that?"

"I missed it by minutes," she explained, "so I bought a bike but it broke in the middle of the storm, and I had to walk the rest of the road."

Vladimir let out an impressed whistle.  
"Damn, you must really want to get a job in this mission!"

"I do." She confirmed with a nod.

The dhole walked close to her bed, studying her.  
"This is a dangerous job, you realized that?" Vladimir told her, his jovial mood shifting to a deadly serious one.

"Yes, I know what I'm walking into," Laika replied.

"Are you sure? Because once you start, there's no going back."

Once again, Laika nodded his head with firm determination.

The doctor smiled once again.  
"Then come, we are about to start."  
The dhole helped Laika to get up and removed the needle from her arm, then pointed at some folded clothes on a nearby chair.  
"I hope they'll fit you, I'll wait outside." He added, before leaving the room, closing the door behind him.

Laika quickly got rid of her gown and put on the clothes: they were a janitor uniform, but she didn't care, as they were newer than any other item of clothing the wolf had ever owned.  
She then got out of the door and found the other canid waiting for her right outside the door, leaning against the wall of the hallway.

He gestured for her to follow him, and Vladimir led Laika through the facility until they reached a wide room, where a dozen mammals had already taken a seat.  
When they noticed her entrance, they all turned to look at her, murmuring.

"W-Why they are all looking at me?" She nervously asked towards Vladimir.

"Well, your arrival wasn't exactly unnoticed, and we delayed the start of the recruitment of several hours because of you." The dhole explained. "Now, you should take a seat as well, you don't want to make them wait any longer, right?"

The wolf did as the doctor had suggested, and rapidly sat down in the closest chair.  
She nervously waved at the others mammals, but all she got back were glares and raised brows; only a small hedgehog on the other side of the room waved back and smiled at her.

She decided not to give too much weight to the hostility of the other mammals in the room, instead Laika followed Vladimir with her gaze: the dhole walked to a small stage in front of the chair, stopping beside a boar wearing a military uniform, whispering something into his ear.

"Okay, we can finally begin." The boar said, speaking into a microphone. "I am Lieutenant General Oleg Georgievich Tuskenko, and this is Doctor Vladimir Yazdogsky; we are the supervisors of the current space program here at Z.A.C."

"You are here for one purpose: to make us take a step further into the future of mammalkind, and to show to the world the greatness of the Zooviet Union!" He declared with pride.  
"Out of all of you, only two will pass to the next stage of the training."

"Wait, two? The banners said three!" A lynx protested.

"That's true," Doctor Yazdogsky intervened "but we already have selected one candidate for the mission."

"That's not fair!" A deer argued.

"It is when said candidate is Albina Zima, the mammal who still retains the record for the highest height reached in sub-orbital flight!" The Lieutenant replied curtly.

At the mention of that name, the whole room was filled with excited murmurs and whispers, and Laika had to gather all her will in order not to squeal in excitement: if she managed to pass the selection, she would meet her hero!

"CUT IT!" The boar roared, and the quiet fell into the room.  
"Now, follow us."

He and Vladimir got down from the stage and led Laika and the other candidates into another room, even wider than the one they were in before: in it, several metallic cubes, the biggest one of which were barely taller than Laika, each one with a small door on one side, were lined on the walls.

"For your first trial, you'll have to stay inside these capsule for five days: the cramped space will simulate the one inside the satellite. This we'll help us evaluate your physical and psychological response to live in such a small environment." Oleg explained.

"You'll also have to wear these," Vladimir added, handing them what looked like a diaper made of reptile leather with various metal buckle to adjust it.

"You are kidding, right?" Asked a cow.

"Absolutely no." The doctor replied. "It's a sanitation device: in the real space pod there won't be a toilet, so this is what you'll use instead."

"I think you gave me the female version, doc." The Lynx said, handing out his diaper.

"They are unisex." The dhole said back.

"WHAT?! And where am I supposed to put this?!" The feline asked, showing to the canid a small, plastic tube situated inside the sanitation device on the front side.

"That catheter must be inserted in the urethra, and it will be connected to a sack inside the device which will contain the urine. As for the feces, well, for that, it works just like a regular diaper." Doctor Yazdogsky explained.

"U-Urethra?" A deer asked, incredulous.  
"You mean... that hole on the..." The buck trailed off, simply pointing to his groin.

"Yep." He nodded with an amused smile. "I'll help you out to insert it if you need it."

"No, thanks. I'm out." The Lynx said, dropping the sanitation device with a disgusted look on his face, followed by the deer.  
The others, instead, accepted the help of the doctor.

When Laika's turn to put the device on came, she couldn't help but feel not at ease: a stranger was about to see her completely naked, and he would also put his paws inside her...  
 _"Remember why you are doing this. Granny needs you. She has endured much worse than this for you, so you can do it for her!"_

She entered the small room, where Vladimir was waiting for her, sitting on a stool.

"Ah, Laika. Please, remove your clothes and sit here." He said, patting over a hospital bed next to him.  
Before putting on the device, the dhole did a complete check-up of her physical condition, checking her blood pressure, auscultating to her heartbeat, even checking for ticks and fleas.

"Okay, you look pretty healthy, maybe a little underweight, nothing too concerning." He told her. "So now, I'll have to ask you to spread your legs."

Laika took a deep breath to calm herself, took a deep breath, and did as the dhole asked.

When she got out from the room, Laika's walk was visibly stiff, like the ones of the mammals that had gone in before her, the sanitation device provoking a really uncomfortable sensation.

When all the mammals had undergone through the procedure, they were all assigned to a different cube, depending on the size of the mammal: each candidate wore only the sanitation device and a tank top with the Z.A.C. logo on it.

"Okay, inside your capsule you'll find all the instructions you'll need. If any of you wishes to end the simulation before the fifth day, just press the red button on the door and we'll come to get you out. Any questions?" General Tuskenko barked out. Seeing that there were none, he gave the order to step inside the capsule.

Well, more like crawl: to pass through the small opening that served as a door to her cube, Laika had to walk on all four.

The inside wasn't much bigger, giving the wolf enough space to sit up with her back straight, and was large about from one elbow to another. On the left, there was a small hatch with 'FOOD' written on it, and one on the right with a red cross on it, which contained medical supplies.

A few minutes after she had settled in the capsule, which had no windows and was lit by a small lightbulb placed above the door, next to the red button mention by the General, she heard the door being locked from the outside.

 _'Here we go.'_ She mentally said to herself.

The next couple of days were a torture. At least, Laika thought that some days had passed: with no way to see the outside and the lamp which was always turned on, she could only guess how much time had passed.

Once she had opened the food hatch, she had discovered that said food consisted only in bars made of some sort of semi-solid jelly, with an awful taste. She didn't even have a way to wash away that taste from her mouth since the bars replaced the water as well.

The cramped space allowed her only so much freedom of movement, but she had to change her position as often as she could, in order to avoid terrible aches.

But that wasn't even the worst thing: during the whole time she had been in the capsule so far, she hadn't yet relieved herself, thus causing her tremendous stomach cramp.  
No matter how hard she had tried, her body seemed to refuse to "evacuate" its wastes; not even some laxatives she had found in the small infirmary helped her condition.  
More than a few times Laika had contemplated pressing the red button and giving up: it would have been so simple to put an end to all this.  
But the memories of her family always gave her the strength to not give up.

It was the third night, or to put it better, the third time she had fallen asleep, when her whole capsule was shaken by an ear-splitting sound, which made her wake up in panic, banging her head on the low ceiling of the box.

The noise was like the roar of a steam locomotive, only ten times louder; covering her ears with her paws did little to muffle the sound, which echoed in the cavities of her skull, causing to the wolf an almost physical pain.

When the roar finally ended, tears were rolling down Laika's cheeks.

"This was a simulation of what taking off will sound like." General Tuskenko voice came out from a small speaker on the side of the box, that Laika had failed to notice before. Next to it, an equally small camera could be seen. "We needed to test your tolerance to loud noises. More might come in the future."

When Laika finally recovered from the shock and managed to take in what the boar had told through the comm, she also realized that something good had come from the whole ordeal: the scare had been so sudden and huge, that she no longer needed to relieve herself.

From then on, Laika's stay in the capsule had become a little more pleasant: she got used to the taste of the bars and her body got accustomed to the cramped space and probably to the sanitation device as well since she had had no longer problem expelling her bodily waste.

She was in the middle of her favourite activity, listing all the constellation she could remember in reverse alphabetic order when she heard the door being unlocked, and opening.  
A wide smile spread on her muzzle and she quickly crawled outside, where General Tuskenko, Doctor Yazdogsky and a bunch of medics and soldiers.

Laika was so happy to finally see someone else besides her reflex on the metallic insides of the capsule; the other mammals, instead, grimaced and covered their nose, a few of them even gagging.  
A mammal that hasn't showered or changed their diaper in five day doesn't exactly a smell nice.

"Congratulations!" Vladimir complimented, fanning the air in front of his nose. "You are one of the two mammals who made it through the selections!"

Laika's smile grew even bigger, and her eyes widened as well.  
"YES!" She laughed, throwing her fists in the air and jumping around, pure happiness flooding her brain.  
She lunged forward and tried to hug the dhole, but he stepped back.

"We can save the celebration for later. Right now, I think you should go take a shower, then I want you to come to the infirmary so I can check you up." Vladimir said, smiling at her.

Laika nodded and followed the direction for the showers: there, she removed her stinking clothes and the diaper and threw herself under the hot stream of water, a moan of pleasure escaping her lips at the invigorating sensation.

"Hi, there!" A high pitched voice squeaked.

Turning around and covering her groin and chest with her arms and tail, she saw that she wasn't alone: with her in the shower room there was also the small hedgehog she had seen when she had first arrived there five days ago.

"My name is Mushka." She introduced herself. "You must be the other candidate who made it through the selection."

The wolf relaxed a bit and, seeing that the other mammal was a female naked as well, returned to scrub her fur, no longer caring to cover her private parts.

"That's right. I'm Laika."

"Nice to meet you, Laika." She said with a kind smile.  
"You look pretty young." The hedgehog added. "How old are you?"

"I'm 18," Laika replied.

"Really?!" Mushka exclaimed surprised. "Why are you here, dear?"

The wolf had a moment of hesitation, not wanting to tell everybody her personal story, but there was a kind of motherly caring tone to Mushka voice, that reminded Laika a bit about her grandma.

"Well, it's a long story..."

They stayed under the shower for about two hours, talking and knowing each other better.  
Laika told the hedgehog about her family, the orphanage, her passion for astronomy and Kira's illness.  
Mushka in return told her about her own life: she had travelled all over the world, taking part to expeditions and many other adventurous journeys.

"I've seen almost every corner of this planet." She explained. "Now, I want to see what's beyond it."

When Laika and Mushka turned off the showers, they had already become friends.

* * *

Laika smiled at those memories.

 _"You were right, Mushka. There's nothing on Earth that can match this view."_ She thought, peeking outside the window.

 _"But is it worth the price I'm going to pay?"_ The wolf mused, the life draining from her body.

* * *

 **HERO**

After the selections, they had let Laika and Mushka rest for a few days.  
The wolf and her new friend had explored the whole facility, from the canteen to the launch control room.

Vladimir had proved to be a good company as well, spending as much time with them as he could.  
It was him who knocked at their door on the dawn of the fourth day.

"General Tuskenko wants to see you in the main hall. Your training starts today." The dhole announced and patiently waited outside the room for them to get dressed.  
When the two cadets got out, he walked with them to the main hall.

"By the way, I can confirm you that the first wage has already been sent to the addresses you provided us." The doctor informed them, and they both nodded and thanked.

Once in the main hall, another mammal was waiting for them in the room other than the boar: an arctic vixen in her thirties, with beautiful amber eyes.

 _"Albina!"_ Laika thought excited, recognizing her childhood hero.

"Miss Zima, this are the cadets who passed the selection." Oleg introduced Laika and Mushka as soon as he noticed the two of them walking in the room.

"My name is Laika, it's a real honour to meet you!" The wolf extended her paw: everything, from her curly tail, wagging furiously to her ears perked straight up, betrayed her excitement.

The vixen eyed her and raised a brow, clearly unimpressed.  
"This was really the best you could find, General?" Albina asked, ignoring completely the paw Laika had offered her.

Laika's eyes widened in surprise at those harsh words, her ears fell flat against her skull and her tail dropped.  
She slowly retracted her arm, staring at her feet.  
Those words were bad enough on their own, but said from Albina, her hero, hurt even more.

"Well, I'll wait for you in the training room," Albina added and walked away.

"They say you should never meet your heroes in the flesh." Mushka tried to comfort the wolf, gently patting on her ankle.

General Tuskenko cleared his throat.  
"Well, ladies, if you want to follow me, miss Zima had a point: we should start the training. This is your last chance to drop out; since our training is top secret, and we can't afford to let enemy powers know about it, you won't be allowed to leave this facility, nor to receive visits." The boar explained.  
"You can write and receive letters, but they'll be checked beforehand to make sure their content won't violate our security protocols. Have I been clear?"

Laika exchange a quick glance with Mushka.  
"YES, SIR!" They exclaimed at once, saluting.

"Good." The boar grinned satisfied.

* * *

And so, they began training: they spent hours every day with General Tuskenko shaping their bodies with military-style exercises and almost the same amount of time learning the basics of physics, biology, astronomy, and mechanics with Vladimir.

Even if Albina had much more experience, Laika managed to catch up with her in about two weeks. This didn't help much to build a friendship with her: in fact, the more Laika got better, the more the vixen looked at the wolf as she was planning the best way to get rid of her.

Laika simply couldn't understand why, and every she had tried to talk to Albina, the vixen had avoided her.

"I don't understand," Laika said to Mushka once they got back into the room after one of Doctor Yazdogsky classes.  
"It's been three weeks! How long can she ignore me?!"

"I'm sorry, darling," Mushka replied. "Some mammals can be really stubborn."  
The short hedgehog had been doing good in the training, even if not as good as Laika or Albina.

"Yeah but... I'm worried about her! She looks thinner every passing day! I think she's overdoing just to keep up with me!" The wolf expressed her concern.

"Well, I-"

Their conversation was interrupted by someone knocking at their door.

"It's Vladimir, can I come in?" The muffled voice of the dhole came from behind the door.

"Sure Doc, come in," Laika replied.

"I see you still like to tease me with that nickname... _Kudrjavka."_ Vladimir said, using the same nickname her granny gave her; it meant "curly", and it came from the peculiar shape Laika's tail had.

"H-How do you know that name?!" The wolf stammered, clearly embarrassed.

"Well, you got some mail, and Oleg ordered me to check if it was some phantom foreign spy that wanted to obtain national secrets from you." The dhole explained, rolling his eyes, before handing her two letters.

Laika's muzzle lit up with joy as she excitedly grabbed the envelopes and extracted a sheet from the first one.

"It's from granny!" She exclaimed after scrolling through the first few paragraphs, with tears of joy flowing from her eyes.  
"She says she's getting better! And she is also scolding me for doing disobeying her!" She chuckled, before continuing reading the letter.

" _...but I'm still proud of what you did. The money is helping a lot of your siblings as well._

 _Now we don't have to worry that the roof might crash on our heads in any moments._

 _We all miss you, Kudrjavka, and we think of you every day._

 _I hope you are doing fine, and to receive soon a reply from you."_

She re-read the letter twice, before folding it back and placing it on her bed, where she was sitting.

Then, she moved onto the second envelope: the words "To Laika" on the back were written in an awful calligraphy she didn't recognize.

She opened it, unfolded the letter on the inside and began to the read it, only to almost drop it from the surprise after reading the first few words.

" _Hi Laika,_

 _It's Alexei._

 _You must be really surprised, I suppose. "When did that silly leopard learn to write?"_

 _Well, thanks to the money you sent us, we could reduce the amount of work we had to do, so we had a few more free time._

 _Me and the others who never got the chance to go to school before decided to hire a tutor to teach us how to read and write, and it was possible thanks to you._

 _So, even if you never get to go to space (which is highly improbable, I think), you'll still be a hero to me and to all of us._

 _I miss you and I wish I could hold you in my arms._

 _Love, Alexei."_

"Oh, Alexei..." She fondly murmured between silent sobs.

"Is there something wrong?" Mushka asked, concerned.

"No, everything is fine." Laika replied, wiping her tears; the letter was full of mistakes and the writing was terrible, but that piece of wrinkled paper was the best gift she had ever received.

* * *

"What is going on?" Vladimir asked, walking inside the workshop.

Inside the place where all the Zooviet satellite and spacecraft had been built, there was a general unrest: engineers were arguing heatedly around a desk, looking at blueprints, while workers and smiths were busy melting and shaping pieces of metal.

One of the engineers, a raccoon, moved away from the group and walked to the dhole.

"Sir, we received orders to start immediately to work on building the next spacecraft for orbital flight with mammal on-"

"Who gave you this order?!" Doctor Yazdogsky interrupted the racoon, furious.

"I did."

Vladimir turned around and saw General Tuskenko standing behind him.

"What?! Why?!" The dhole asked incredulously.

"This morning a report arrived on my desk: according to our spies, Zootopia will be ready to launch its first mammal into space in less than one year. We cannot afford to come second: our nation needs this victory. We must bring our mammals together!" The boar explained, his chest swollen with pride.

"And when exactly do you expect them to finish your spacecraft?" Vladimir asked, knowing full well it was pointless to argue against the boar's national pride.

"In four months." He replied.

" _FOUR MONTHS?!_ Oleg, that's insane!" Vladimir shouted, causing everyone to stop and look at them.

"They just need to make a few modifications to the first Furtnik schematics." The boar waved the dhole's worries off.

"That satellite wasn't supposed to carry a living being on it: that task asks for a ton of modifications to protect the mammal travelling in the spacecraft! It can't be done in such a short time!" Vladimir protested.

"Well, I'm sure they'll make it, or they have been warned that they might spend a long time away from their families, maybe never seeing them ever again." The general explained menacingly.  
"And that also applies to you as well, if you'll get in my way." Oleg threatened the dhole.

* * *

Vladimir gulped nervously as the general walked away without even waiting for his reply, and the workers resumed their jobs.

The weeks kept passing, and the cadets' training became increasingly demanding: every six days, they had to spend a period of time inside of a capsule, like the one of the first trial, only they became progressively smaller.

In the latest one, Laika could only lay down, feeling like she was trapped in a coffin.

Vladimir's classes had become extremely complicated, and the wolf and Mushka had to spend hours awake in the dead of night to study and try to grasp the concepts that would later be the argument of the dhole's exams.

Laika had also noticed something bothering the doctor, but he had always claimed to be fine.

After three months of them being at the Z.A.C. facilities, they were called in a new room: the one dedicated to flight simulation.

"Laika, Mushka, come closer." Vladimir waved at them as they entered the room; Albina was by his side.

Laika and her hedgehog friend looked with amazement in their eyes at the huge machine taking up most of the space in the room.

It consisted of a long mechanic arm, with a pin connecting it to its base while also allowing it a 360 degrees rotation around the support.

On the other side of the arm, there was a small box with wide windows, looking like the cockpit of a plane.

"Is that a flight simulator?!" Mushka asked, excitedly.

"Yes." Replied the dhole with an amused smile. "This will help us verify your response to the huge acceleration you'll be exposed in order to exit the Earth atmosphere."

"Indeed." General Tuskenko walked in the room, and Laika was pretty sure she had heard Vladimir start growling as the boar joined them.

"It is designed to crush your bodies almost to the point of breaking your bones." The boar went on, with a weird smile.  
"So... who wants to be the first?"

Needless to say, Laika volunteered to go first. A tall ladder helped her reaching the cockpit, and once inside she strapped on.

Peeking outside the windows, the wolf saw the other four mammals walking to a nearby control panel.

"Are you ready, Laika? Remember, if you want to stop the simulation, just press the red button on the armrest." Vladimir said into a microphone, which transmitted his voice inside the cockpit.

The wolf rose a thumb up and showed it to the dhole, who nodded and pressed a button.

With a sudden jolt, the flight simulator came to life, and began to spin around: at first, the movement was slow, like being on a really boring theme park ride; then, it began to gain more and more speed, and she actually began to feel her body start to sink in the soft cushions of the seat.

When she could no longer do that, her body began to feel like it was being slowly crushed and flattened by a huge weight, to the point where rising her chest to breathe had become almost impossible.

She was about to press the red button when Vladimir's voice filled the cockpit once more: "Escape velocity successfully reached! Initiating deceleration!"

As soon as the pressure on her chest decreased enough to let her, Laika breathed a sigh of relief.

It took a few minutes after the machine had stopped for her head to cease to spin as well.

When she finally made it to the ground, everyone congratulated her, with the exception of Albina: the arctic vixen shoved her sideways and began to climb the ladder; she hopped inside the cockpit and closed the hatch.

"Start this thing." She ordered.

Everyone got in a safe distance and Vladimir started the machine.

At first, everything went fine, with the simulator gaining speed like it had done during the previous test.

But after a few rotations, Laika noticed that something was off: some stains were popping on the windscreen of the cockpit. Red stains.

"Doc, stop the machine!" Laika shouted.

"Albina hasn't pressed the-"

"Do it! Something's wrong!" The wolf cut off General Tuskenko protest.

Vladimir did as Laika told him and initiated the deceleration procedure. When the machine finally shut down, everyone could clearly see the drop of blood on the windows of the cockpit.

"WHY DID YOU STOP IT?!" A furious Albina shouted as she opened the shaft; but nobody answered, too shocked by the sight of her white fur stained by the blood coming out from her nose and mouth.  
Even one of her eyes was bleeding.

"I saw the blood on the windshield and I-"

"You!" Albina growled, pointing her finger at Laika. "You wanted to show off how much better you are, didn't you?!"

"What are you-WHOA!" Laika barely managed to catch the dizzy vixen in her arm as she was falling after trying to get out of the simulator.

Albina looked around in confusion, but when she realized what had happened, rage contorted her features once again.

"Get your paws off me!" She shouted, pushing herself away from the wolf and dropping to the ground on all four.

She slowly got up and, waddling, stormed out.

No one said anything for a few moments, then Laika began to growl. "You won't get away with it that easy this time." She snarled, having had enough of the condescending and moody vixen, and set off after Albina.

Following the smell of blood, Laika tracked her down in the locker room.

"Listen here, you..." Laika trailed off as she saw the vixen: she was curled up in a fetal position on the ground, naked.  
She was so slender that the wolf could count all of her bones.

"Go. Away." Albina said between sobs.

"This training is killing you," Laika said, walking to the vixen and kneeling beside her.  
Albina remained quiet, so Laika went on, "Is this mission really worth more than your life?"

"YES!" Albina cried out, startling the wolf who got up and took a few steps back.

"Why?" Laika asked after a few seconds.

"Because it's all that there is in my life. The only thing I've ever accomplished was that world record flight. If someone else... if you are the first mammal in space, no one will remember me." She weakly said, wiping blood and tears from her muzzle.  
"But as you can see, my previous missions took their toll, and so my life will be meaningless."

"That's not true. And it's stupid." Laika said, now back at the vixen's side.  
"You know why I'm here?"

Albina looked up at her, anger no longer in her eyes, and shook her head slowly.

"It's because, when I was a little kit, I read an article on a newspaper, about a young vixen who dared to go where no one else had ever been before." The wolf explained with a kind smile.  
"What you did was, and still is, absolutely amazing, and so you are. And there's still so much you can do with your life, if only you manage to move on."

"Like what?" Albina asked skeptically.

"You could mentor me, Mushka, and all the other mammals that one day will travel up there."

Albina snorted.

"I'm serious! Vladimir, General Tuskenko... they don't know what it's like to actually be up there, what it feels like. But you do! You could help us!" Laika explained.

"You... You'd really want me to teach you, after all I've done?" The vixen asked, clearly baffled.

"Yes. It would be an honour." She replied, offering her a paw; Albina looked at it, then back to Laika, smiled and grabbed it.

Laika helped her back to her unsteady feet and walked her in the shower to clean herself up.

* * *

Not even Albina's training had prepared her for this, though.

To the pain.

To the feeling of the looming death.

Laika wished that someone would hold her paw, and tell her that everything was going to be okay.

But nothing was going to be okay, and she would spend the last moments of her life alone.

* * *

 **Notes:**

Hi!  
I hope you enjoyed this chapter!  
Now, it's time for some trivia: Albina and Mushka were the names of the other two dogs that were selected for the Sputnik II mission, but Laika was the one to eventually be sent to space.  
Oleg Gazenko was a real person, who trained the dogs, while Vladimir Yazdogsky waz the one who led the space dogs program.  
The test I depicted in this chapter are very similar to the one Laika and the other dogs had to endure, for more infos you can look on the Wikipedia page dedicated to Laika.

With only one more chapter left, time is running out for our poor wolf...  
Stay tuned for the ending of the tale of Laika.  
until then,  
Bye!


	3. Chapter 3

**THE LAST NIGHT**

Laika was laying restless on her bed, while the ticking of the clock on the wall seemed to be echoing, almost booming in the empty room.

That day, November the 2nd 1957, was the last one before the launch: General Tuskenko had insisted that she spent it alone, without distractions, focusing on rest. But she only kept shifting her position on the bed, unable to sleep. Laika was way too nervous doing so. Doubts and questions kept crossing her mind: "Why haven't I seen the spacecraft yet? What if something goes wrong? I wish I could see my family once more before the launch…"

Her thoughts were interrupted by someone knocking on the door.

"Come in." The wolf said, and doctor Yazdogsky opened the door but stopped in the doorframe.

"Doc, what are you doing here? Do I need to do another medical check?"

"No, don't worry." He looked around in the hallway outside the door, to make sure no one was in sight, "I'm here to get you out of this place."

"What? Why?" Laika asked confused, not sure if the Dhole was joking or not.

"Well, spending your last night before the mission trapped in this hole sounds boring as hell, and you must be building up a lot of tension in here alone. Overthinking about tomorrow and such things...so I'm making sure you have some fun tonight." Vladimir said with a wink. Laika felt that he wasn't telling her everything, but the idea of getting out of that room was way too compelling for her to refuse the kind offer.

"Lead the way, Doc." Laika said, jumping out of bed and following the other canid without a second thought.

They needed about an hour to get to the rear exit of the Z.A.C.; Vladimir took an extremely long route to get there, mostly to avoid any surveillance.  
Laika kinda enjoyed the thrill of the whole thing.

When they finally got to their destination, Albina and Mushka were already waiting for them, the first holding a coat in her arms.

"You two are involved in this too?" Laika asked, surprised and slightly amused.

"Yes. Doctor Yazdogsky needed snitches on the inside." The hedgehog explained with a smirk.

"Have fun, Laika. We'll cover for you." The arctic vixen said with a wink, as she passed the coat to the wolf.

"I will. Bye girls, see you tomorrow." Laika said, as she and Vladimir walked out of the door and into the cold. She inhaled deeply, letting the chilling air fill her lungs: it felt good to be walking in the outside after months spent inside the building.

They had been driving in silence for about fifteen minutes when Laika could no longer hold back.

"So… you kept avoiding the question… but I can clearly tell that something worries you." Laika said to Vladimir, "Is it about tomorrow? Something's wrong that I should know?"

"I… I always get anxious before a mission. Many factors are beyond our control and the more factors, the more anxious I get. That's all."

"I know what you mean. I willingly accepted all the risk the day I walked in here." Laika replied but continued after she flashed him a smile, "I think it would be stupid to say that I'm not scared."

"I am too." He admitted with a sigh and replied to her smile.

"But for tonight, let's put those fears and worries away, shall we?"

Laika nodded in agreement and smiled, wondering what he had prepared for them.

After a few more minutes they arrived in the nearby town, and the Dhole pulled over in front of a house made of bricks, that was about two stories tall. The lights were on, and smoke was coming out of the chimney. Laika felt that someone was waiting for them inside.

The two canids got out of the car and walked up to the front door; the Dhole pulled out a key from a pocket of his coat and opened the door, letting Laika in, following her right after.

"I'm home!" Vladimir announced, and immediately excited screams and giggles echoed from a nearby room. In a matter of seconds, three dhole kits came running into the hallway, and the doctor knelt down to hug them.

"Hello, kits! How are you?" The Dhole chuckled as he kissed them on the forehead, while Laika stood behind him and smiled at the reunion of the father and his children.

"Laika, let me introduces you to my kits: Sasha, Luka and Grigory." He introduced them, from the oldest to the youngest, "Kits, this is Laika, a dear friend of mine who is staying with us for dinner."

"Hi!" The three cubs shouted as one, before leaving their father and giving Laika a hug. She embraced the cubs without hesitation and was more than happy about the welcoming gesture. It reminded her of Polina and all her other siblings back at the orphanage, something that felt like it had happened a lifetime ago. With the kits in her arms and the memories in her mind, her eyes began to become watery.

Noticing that, Vladimir turned to his kits.  
"I think you hugged Laika long enough. Now, up with you three little bandits to the bathroom and wash your little paws for dinner, okay?" Giggling, the three Dholes separated from Laika and started a short race who would be the first at the sink.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just a moment of homesickness, but it's gone now," Laika assured him. Both turned to the kitchen door when a female dhole walked in wearing a white apron above a plain brown dress.

"Hello. You must be Laika," She greeted the wolf with a warm smile, "I'm Anna. My husband talked about you a lot."

"Nice to meet you." Laika said, blushing.

"You've arrived just in time, the dinner is ready." Anna said, before quickly turning around and calling out for the kits, who followed her into the dining room.

"You didn't tell me we were going to your home." Laika whispered to Vladimir.

"Well, you know what they say: no place is like home. And for tonight, my home is your home. Now come, my wife has made her famous perch ukha." He said licking his lips.

In the following hours, Laika completely forgot about the launch. Distracted by the delicious food, the antics of the kits and the stories Vladimir told them from his youth. It was half-past ten, and the kits had just been put to bed when someone knocked at the door.

"Can you go to see who it is? I'll go help Anna with the dishes." Vladimir asked with a smirk which left Laika a bit confused, but she followed his request.

"Uh… sure." She shrugged and got up from her chair, walking to the front door. When she saw who was standing on the other side, she almost fainted.

"Hello, Laika."

"Alexei!" Laika shouted, her heart swelling up with joy.

Without thinking, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him boldly. "What…How…?"

For a moment, Laika just stood there in the door frame and looked at the mammal she thought she would never meet again.

He hadn't changed much in the time she was gone, but just now she recognized how much she had missed him.

"You have to thank your Doctor Yazdogsky, he was the one who invited me here." Alexei explained with a smile. Laika turned around and saw Vladimir and Anna looking at them with warm smiles.

"You're welcome." The Dhole said to greet him, while his wife, Anna, pulled them into the house, adding, "Now, come inside you two. It's cold out there!"

Laika quickly crossed the hallway and hugged Vladimir, "Thank you."

"Don't even mention it." The Doctor replied, ending the hug.

"Now, Anna and I are going to bed, leaving you two alone. There's a guest bedroom at the end of the hallway, next to the kitchen. You can… 'sleep' there." The Doctor added with a smirk before Anna gently elbowed him in the ribs.

"Ouch." Vladimir protested playfully, before starting to climb the stairs right after his wife.

The snow leopard and the wolf chuckled at the married couple and, when they were gone, silence fell upon them.

"So… how is everyone doing back at home?" Laika asked.

"We are doing good, thanks to you. We could even afford to take in two more kits. You are amazing, you know that, right?" Alexei replied.

Laika blushed hard, looking away from him before she spoke  
"I ran away following a dream… that's what I really did…" She felt ashamed to admit that.

"Maybe… but you did so only when you knew it could save Kira and the orphanage. You could have left whenever you wanted… and yet you stayed with us. And you left for us." Alexei said and put a finger under her chin, gently lifting her face up to his, so that he could look into her eyes.

"You are the bravest mammal I know, and I love you for that." Alexei gently whispered, before kissing her.

Instinctively knowing what she wanted, Laika grabbed for his checks and kissed him back. It didn't take long, and Alexei lifted the young wolf up, wrapping her in his arms as she wrapped her legs around his waist.

Without parting, Alexei walked them into the guest's bedroom, while Laika began slowly to undress him.

* * *

"I'm sorry for all this," Vladimir said, as he closed the last luggage and continued, "You and the kits have done nothing to deserve this."

Anna gently stroke his cheek.

"Don't worry. You are doing the right thing." She reassured him.  
"And the kits will understand, when they'll grow older, they'll understand that their father acted as a hero. Laika… she deserves to live."

Anna then took his paws and walked the exhausted Dhole to bed.

"Sleep now. A long day awaits us tomorrow."

* * *

 **BRAVE MAMMALS**

"Laika, wake up!"

The wolf let out an annoyed groan and blinked a couple of times. The first thing she realized was that she was naked in a bed. Someone had their paw on her shoulder and was shaking her. Laika's eyes quickly adapted to the dim light in the room, but she instantly remembered where she was and who that voice belonged to.

"DOC!" Laika shouted, sitting up and covering her body with the blankets, "What the heck?!"

Alexei, who was next to her in the same situation, clearly embarrassed, but without any option to cover himself.

"Oh, come on, don't act as I've never seen you naked. Quick, get dressed, we must go. Now!" Vladimir replied with urgency in his voice.

"Are we late for the launch?" Laika asked worried and rubbed her eyes.

"We are not going back to that place." The Dhole replied.

"What? Why?" The wolf was even more confused now.

"We don't have time, I'll explain to you later when we are far from-"

Doctor Yazdogsky couldn't finish his sentence, as a loud crash could be heard and shouting voices filled the house. In a matter of seconds, several mammals wearing the Zooviet Union army uniforms flooded the room.

Strong paws grabbed Laika, Alexei, and Vladimir. In seconds they were dragged outside in the cold, forced to kneel down in the middle of the street. Waiting for them was General Tuskenko, his face contorted in an expression of anger.

"So, you really thought you could run away just like that, without consequences." The boar said with a sneer.

"G-General, it's a big m-misunderstanding." Laika said, still naked and shivering from the cold.

"D-Doctor Yazdogsky just wanted to help-p me g-g-get a bit distracted b-before the launch."

Right then, one of the soldiers came out from the front door and threw two luggage on the ground, causing them to open and pour their contents onto the street: mainly clothes, both for adults and kits.

"Is that so? Then what were these for?" The General asked. Laika turned to the Dhole with wide eyes. The doctor had been clearly planning to run away, bringing his family and her with him.

"I wanted to save you! This mission is suicide, and he knows that!" The Dhole accused the boar.

"W-What? What does this m-mean?" Laika asked to General Tuskenko, and she felt how fear began to rise up in her.

"Why don't you tell her how you rushed the creation of the Furtnik II? How it isn't remotely equipped to adequately protect a living mammal? You are-"

"ENOUGH!" The boar shouted, extracting his gun from the holster and pointing it at the Dhole's head.

"One more word and your species will be a step closer to extinction, Vladimir."

The doctor gulped nervously. He looked over his shoulder and saw Anna and the kits looking at the scene from the doorstep. He took a deep breath, then made up his mind.

"No. I won't shut up. I won't let you sacrifice a young, brilliant wolf to your insane nationalistic ideals." He said, slowly standing up. The doctor was scared, but he wasn't going to let that stop him from defending Laika.

"Please Oleg. It's not worth it. Be patient for just a few more months, and we'll be ready for a mission with a proper spacecraft. It's all I ask for. Two months, maybe three...nothing more."

The General mused on Vladimir's words for some time but he finally turned away from him.

"Stand up." He finally said to Laika and Alexei, "And bring them something to cover themselves with." He ordered two soldiers and a relieved smile crossed the muzzles of Laika, Alexei, and Vladimir.

"Tell me, who are you?" Oleg asked the snow leopard.

"I-I'm a friend of Laika's." Alexei replied.

"Well, judging by the fact that you were both naked in the same bed, I'd say you two are more than friends." The boar chuckled.

Alexei looked at Laika, the wolf and the leopard both blushing.

"Well, I-I guess you're n-not wrong…"

"Good." The General replied and smirked.

BANG!

Alexei fell to the ground yelling in pain, a bleeding wound in his right knee. Laika shouted in shock and Vladimir was about to rush next to the leopard to treat his injury, but Oleg lifted his hoof to stop him.

"I'll put the next bullet in his head, so be careful on what your next move will be." The boar threatened.

"Oleg, you are a monster." Vladimir growled, but the General replied just with a tired gaze at the Dhole.

"Maybe I am. But I am also the kind of mammal that this country needs to save it. Nowadays, mammals have lost faith in our state. The Zooviet Union is on the brink of collapsing, and there are forces in this world, who want to see us fall into the pieces we once were. We need to show them that we are still strong. That we are still powerful. We can't afford that THEY see that we're weak." The General said, and to Laika's surprise, she saw real fear in his eyes. Whatever nonsense he was talking, he believed it.

"Forces? What are you talking about? The Zooviet Union is the only country in the world... besides us only towns and huge cities exist in this world. That's it. No one could fight us...All of this is just madness." The doctor was out of breath when he stopped speaking.

"You have no idea what's out there, Vladimir. I saw it, and I promised our president results, and you know what? I will deliver these results, for the sake of our country." Oleg said in a stoic voice.

"Are you really willing to sacrifice her life for a delusion? For a paranoia you and the president share?" Vladimir asked, disgusted and not sure if the mammal he once knew was still sane.

"This question doesn't matter right now. Only one question matters: how many lives is she willing to sacrifice to save her own?" Oleg replied with a sickening devious smile pressing his gun against Alexei's head. Just for a second, Laika's eyes went wide before she decided what she had to do.

"NO! Please, I'll come with you but don't hurt him." Laika gave in, much to the boar's pleasure.

"Laika…"

"You should take care of Alexei's wound, Doc." She said, looking at the Dhole, who saw in her eyes a scared young girl, but with the strong will to protect those close to her. The doctor nodded, and they all got on board the truck that was waiting for them.

The rest of the journey was spent in silence, except for Alexei's whines of pain. They gave him and Laika some clothes to put on, but the wolf couldn't shake off the cold: it didn't come from the outside, but rather from inside her. It was the feeling of knowing that she was nearing to her end and that she couldn't do a thing to stop; Death had taken her paw and was walking by her side.

When they arrived back to the Z.A.C. building, a group of paramedics was already waiting for them with a stretcher for Alexei.

"Please, let me go with him to say goodbye. Grant me this only request." The wolf begged Oleg.

"Fine. But I'll come with you, so no funny ideas."

The group of mammals moved to the infirmary, only to discover that two beds were already occupied, much to Laika and Vladimir's horror. Mushka and Albina were covered in bruises and cuts, and the hedgehog was even unconscious.

"Albina! What happened?" Laika asked, running at her bedside.

"He… wanted to know where you were… we told him to go fuck himself…," The vixen replied with a weak smile and a sad look.

"Apparently, it was pointless… if you are here."

"Son of a whore! This wasn't necessary!" Laika growled at Oleg.

"Please general… send me in her place…," Albina said.

"Oh, miss Zima… you are but the ghost of the proud mammal you used to be… I can't say that I've sent a weak, pathetic mammal in space " Oleg replied, giving a look of disgust to the vixen, who lowered her eyes ashamed.

That was when Laika snapped and swept his claws across the boar's face. With a roar of anger the boar stumbled backward until he slammed against one of the beds. Through his hooves, with which he tried to cover his wounded face, blood dripped slowly down on the white linoleum floor and gathered to a little puddle. The attack of Laika had opened three deep cuts on his muzzle. Three cuts everyone would clearly see for the rest of his life.

"Albina is a much better mammal than you disgusting shit will ever be," Laika shouted at the growling boar.

"Be thankful that I need you, or I would have already shot you! Damn bitch." Oleg growled and commanded some more soldiers to him, who helped him get up.

"I want you out of this room in five minutes, or I'll put an end to the suffering of all your friends." He added while he left the room.

"I'm sorry… Laika," Albina told her after a few moments. The white vixen was almost crying.

It hurt Laika to see the proud mammal like this.

"Don't be. Just… just promise me one thing: don't waste your life. You can do so many things, don't give up on them just because some idiots say you're not up to it."

Albina nodded, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"You are an amazing mammal, Laika. I will never forget you."

"Please, don't talk to me like that, like I was already dead. I… I think I'm not strong enough to accept it just yet." Laika said with a trembling voice.

"Okay. Then see you later, Laika," Albina smiled halfheartedly. Laika knew that the vixen did her best.

"Bye, Albina." The wolf gave her a kiss on the forehead and left her with the others. Laika then turned to Alexei, whose knee had been stitched up by Vladimir.

"Don't go, please, I'm begging you! My life isn't worth yours! I… I can't lose you knowing it's because of me!"

"You know I can't say no. That mad mammal would not stop killing until I sat in that spacecraft. It's not your fault, it's mine." She said with a gentle, soothing tone, while tears dampened the fur around her eyes and cheeks.

"But know that now you live for both you and me, so enjoy every single moment you'll have to its fullest, have I been clear?"

Between sobs, Alexei only managed a nod. Laika leaned forward and kissed him deeply, for what seemed like ages, until they finally parted. It took all her remaining strength to leave that room with Vladimir, knowing where her destination would be.

"I'm sorry, Laika. I've tried my best…," the doctor said but could just look to the ground, unable to facing Laika.

"Doc, I'm sick of mammals apologizing to me. You've all been the best parts of my life, and my only regret is that I won't be able to spend more time with all of you. You've been in these few months like the father I never had, and for that, I owe you a big thank you." She said with her voice cracking, hugging him tightly. Vladimir hugged her back, tears flowing from his eyes as well.

"I'll be with you until the end of the line, I swear."

* * *

Laika let out a trembling exhale. She had put on her spacesuit, only the helmet was missing; the wolf was holding it in her paws, looking at her reflection on its glass.

Her whole body was shaking: all of her instincts were screaming

"RUN!"

But she couldn't do that, she knew how much lives depended on her.

"Less than ten minutes until the launch. Are you ready, Laika?" the General's impatient voice came from a speaker in the room. A last deep exhale escaped her before she put on the helmet and fixated it. Just as planned, the oxygen supply in the tanks on her back kicked in.

"Yes, I'm coming out now." She replied through the microphone built in the helmet.

Laika opened the doors and found herself outside on the runway: a long, narrow road of concrete. On the other end, her spacecraft was waiting for her. The Furtnik II was a silver cone of metal, mounted on top of a huge rocket which would make possible for the satellite to leave the orbit. It resembled a huge obelisk: her own monumental funerary monument.

She walked straight toward it. On either side of the concrete road were journalist and photographers. All of them just here to immortalize the historic moment. Laika wondered if some of them knew that they were looking at a mammal walking toward their death. Probably not.

Laika arrived in front of the metal ladder on the side of the rocket and began to climb it, peg after peg. Her fear was growing, but so was another feeling: excitement.

She couldn't help but feel excited about what she was about to do, although it would cost her everything.

Laika reached the top and opened the airlock on the side of the Furtnik, entered it and closed it behind her. The inside was pretty similar to the cubes she had trained in, except it had a padded seat and a circular porthole on one side.

Laika sat herself in, fastened the seatbelts and pressed a few buttons and switches, which turned on the communication devices and a monitor on her left.

"Laika to mission control, do you read me?"

"Here mission control, we can hear you loud and clear. Your suit is also transmitting all your vitals. Everything is okay, so far." replied the familiar voice of doctor Yazdogsky.

"We are about to begin the launch, in less than five minutes."

Without lying, Laika was sure that this would be the five longest minutes in her whole life. Right then, she wanted to either run away or be over with it quickly.

"One minute until the launch," Victor said into the comm, his voice cracking, "All systems are working. Starting the countdown. 59… 58… 57…"

Each number felt like a punch in her gut: silent tears began to ran down her cheeks.

10..

9…

8…

7…

6…

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

Her whole world began to rumble, and her ears were filled with the deafening roar of the rocket's engine coming alive. When the rocket started to rise, she was flattened against the seat by the crushing force of the acceleration.

Outside the small window, everything was a blur, but that didn't matter, as she couldn't keep her eyes open.

But the worst came a few seconds later: an alarm went off, but Laika barely noticed it. The blaring sound was covered by the terrible screams of pain as the wolf felt as if her body was set on fire.

* * *

"What's going on?!" Victor asked, his voice was filled with terror.

"SOMEBODY TALK TO ME!" He demanded, towering above the agonizing cries of the wolf that echoed through the mission control room. The Dhole was staring at a monitor in front of him, showing the vitals of Laika: her heartbeat was off the charts.

"T-The cooling system failed," Answered a technician, pale and trembling from the shock.

"She is receiving all the heat straight from the rocket."

"Turn off the audio from the Furtnik." General Tuskenko ordered.

"WHAT?!" The Dhole roared.

"Her screams are disturbing the mammals working here. Turn. Off. The Audio." The boar growled menacingly and touched one of the cuts, he had received not long ago from the dying wolf.

Victor walked up to the boar, who was twice his size and stared at him, "No. I won't. I'm going to be with Laika until her last breath, and I don't care if this screams will haunt you for the rest of-ARGH!"

The canid fell to his knees, spitting blood. The General had hit him with his hoof on his face.

"Stay down, dog." The boar spat on the ground, almost as of disgusted by the weakness he saw in the doctor. But Victor stood back up, although on shaking legs.

"N-no."

The boar snarled and was about to hit him again when a gun clicked behind him.

Oleg turned around and saw that one of his soldiers, a raccoon dog, was pointing his weapon against him.

"Sir, I'll have to ask you to step away from doctor Yazdogsky."

"Private Korsakoff, put down your weapon, or I'll have you arrested for insubordination!" General Tuskenko shouted.

"Actually, Sir, you should do what he says." A second soldier replied, pointing his gun too at the boar. It didn't take long, and all the soldiers in the room had joined private Korsakoff.

"She is dying for her country, just like many of our companions did back then in the revolution." The raccoon dog said and made a break before he ended. "She won't die alone."

"You'll all regret this." General Tuskenko said, but he stepped aside, raising his hooves.

Right at that moment, the cries of pain stopped, and silence fell onto the room.

"Is she…?" Private Korsakoff asked in a grave tone.

Vladimir rushed back to the monitor.

"No, she is still alive...barely."

"The rocket detached seconds ago, she is in orbit now," The same technician as before, a bear, explained, "The temperature inside the satellite has dropped a bit... but it's still terribly high."

* * *

Laika was wheezing.

The heat… The heat was terrible. With a trembling arm, she opened the small locker with the food supplies: even through the suit, the metal almost burned her paw.

But the jelly bars, the same she had eaten during her trainings in the cubes, were sizzling against the metallic surface.

She couldn't eat those.

But she wanted some water. She NEEDED IT.

She opened the small infirmary and found what she was looking for: a small ice pack.

Grunting, she removed her helmet, which began to float around in the cramped space, and tore the ice pack open with her teeth, causing a few drops of the blue liquid to join her helmet.

The refrigerant within it was disgusting and far from frozen but was still the coldest thing in that ship.

She sucked it eagerly, remembering Victor had told her it was non-toxic, and it gave a small relief from the heat.

"Laika, can you hear me?"

The wolf pressed the red button on the right armrest to activate the satellite communication system since she was no longer wearing the helmet with the mic in it; even that small gesture left her drained.

"Y-yeah, Victor," She weakly replied.

* * *

"She's still alive! Let's bring her back home. If we start immediately, then we maybe have the chance…" Victor shouted with joy, as everybody cheered, but he was cut off in the middle of the sentence by Oleg. The boar sat on the ground and held his head with his hooves.

"You can't."

Once more, silence fell over all the mammals in the room, when they heard his words. Everyone stopped working and turned towards the boar. With wide eyes, Yazdogsky stepped in front of the General. His breathing was shallow, and like everyone else in the room, he hoped that the words of the boar were just a mistake.

"What do you mean by that?! She did what you wanted! She's the first mammal who went to space! And even if the re-entry might kill her, it's still a better option than leaving her to die of overheating!"

"The satellite is not equipped with a de-orbit mechanism, it never was… and it was never supposed have one. Not so early in its development." He simply replied.

"W-What?" Victor felt his legs almost give away., "N-No...it's impossible… no one would have allowed it…"

"I compartmentalized the construction of the Furtnik. Each team was working on a different part of the satellite, knowing only the general blueprint of it, but not what the other teams were working on."

The boar didn't show any trace of remorse as he explained how he had sentenced Laika to her death.

"Why?! WHY?!" Victor cried out, his voice filled with anger. He grabbed a nearby stool and slammed it against the boar's face, and began to hit him over and over again until two soldiers tackle him and dragged him away. The Dhole panted heavily and asked in a defeated tone, "Why?"

"Do you still not understand it, Vladimir? Exploring the space was never our goal. We needed a rocket that was able to reach the orbit." Oleg replied, spitting out one of his teeth, before he continued, "This whole, first mammal in space thing, was just a cover-up for our first intercontinental ballistic missile. The mammals of this world just saw a big historical event. One more step in the great development of mammalkind...but for the Zooviet Union, it was about sending a message. And I'm sure the receiver understood it."

For a brief moment, Yazdogsky didn't know what to say before he began to laugh bitterly, "They, heh? Hahaha...Your and the parties delusion about imaginary enemies that can destroy a country like the Zooviet Union."

Calm and with a knowing smile on his face, the General asked back, "Vladimir, why do you think there are no other countries in this world? Just a lot of cities who live more or less peaceful together? Tell me why?"

"There were other countries...," The doctor began but was interrupted by the General, "Yes! In the past and they all failed! But the Zooviet Union will not fail...not as long as I am alive."

"You sacrificed a young life, just to sending a message? And what should this great message be?"

"No matter where they are or what they do, we can strike back at any point of this planet." The General replied with a determined smile, which crumbled in seconds after he heard the words of the doctor. "So you know where 'they' are?"

"No… but we will," the General replied stoic and looked to the ground. He knew that he had lost the argument to the doctor. Vladimir Yazdogsky had enough of strange conspiracy theories and even stranger plans of mammals who were obviously drunk of their own power and ideology, blinded by enemies who did not exist. But Laika was real and dying, she needed him right now more than anyone else.

"All of this for nothing, Oleg. You sacrificed her just like that...Next time, play with your own life and not the one of an innocent mammal." He bitterly replied, turning back to the screen and pressing the button to activate the microphone.

"Laika, do you copy?"

"Y-Yes."

"We… We can't bring you back home… I… I' m…," the doctor couldn't control himself anymore, and his body began to shake violently when he started to cry.

"It's 'kay, Doc," There was a moment of silence, "You should see it."

"W-What?" Victor asked, sniffing and drying his eyes.

"Our planet. It's beautiful from up here." Her voice was weak, barely audible, but everyone in the room listened carefully to Laika's words. The heartbeat on the monitor was slowly dying down.

"C-Can you tell me what is it like?" Victor replied, tears dampening the fur around his eyes. He wanted to distract her as she drifted off.

"It's green. And blue…. there's so much blue… I see the sun… It's… It's about to rise on you…"

"T-That must be stunning to see," No one dared to speak. No one but the wolf and the dhole.

"Yeah… I'd... I'd like to… to hear a song. That… that would… be great…"

There were several seconds of silence, then Victor began to sing. It was a lullaby, one he used to sang to his kits. His voice was sweet, warm and kind.

When he stopped singing, silence fell once again in the room.

"You… have a beautiful… voice…"

"T-Thank you…"

"Victor… I'm scared… I ca… I can't keep my… eyes open… I… I tried to resist…"

"I know. You are a brave mammal. You can rest now." Victor soothed her.

"Will… you… stay… with… me?"

"Absolutely. I'll be here."

"Than… Thank you…"

Those were Laika's final words. Her heart kept beating for seven more hours, but she never woke up again. But during all that time, Victor remained there. Until her final heartbeat.

"Goodbye, Laika."

* * *

 **NOTES:**

Yeah...

Not a happy ending, but you knew it was going to happen, right?

Anyway,sorry for the long wait!

No excuses: it was my fault, I left writing on a pause because I had more pressing thing concerning my life that needed my attention  
But you guys deserved my time as well.  
So I can only hope that the wait was worth it.  
ah, almost forgot, the story has now a cover, drawn by yours truly!

Check it out on my DeviantArt account!

Also, this isn't quite the ending of the journey...


	4. Epilogue I

**50 YEARS LATER**

"And now, live from Saint Petersbork, our correspondent Peter Moosebridge."

"Thanks Dave. I'm here because today, November the 3rd 2007, marks the fiftyth anniversary of an important event in the history of space exploration." The young moose explained.

"I'm here with Polina Volkov, head of the International Space Program." He went on, introducing a deer in her fifties who was standing next to him.

"Doctor Volkov, can you tell us what happened on this day, fifty years ago?"

"With pleasure. Today we celebrate the first mammal to ever go to space, Laika. Unfortunately, that event also lead to her death." The doe explained, a note of sadness in her voice.

"You knew her, right?"

"Yeah. We grew up in the same orphanage. She was my big sister." Polina replied.

"What do you think is Laika's legacy?"

"She is an example of bravery. She manage to overcome incredible challenges for the people she loved. If it wasn't for her, I probably wouldn't be here right now."

"Thanks for your time, Doctor Volkov." Peter replied.

The camera switched from the two mammals to to a statue in the middle of the square behind them: it represented Laika, staring to the horizon with a proud look in her eyes and wearing her spacesuit.

The statue had been made from melting the charred remains of the Furtnik II, recovered from the ocean after it had re entered in the atmosphere several weeks after the launch.

Many mammals were placing flowers at the feet of the monument: between there were an old arctic fox with amber eyes, a snow leopard using a cane to help him walk, a family of dholes, the older of them barely able to contain his tears, and many others.

The reporter went on to explain how the datas recovered from Laika's trip had helped build a safer spacecraft that would take the next astronauts in space.

In Bunnyburrow some rabbit kits were looking at the screen, listening with curiosity at what the correspondent was saying.

A 15 years old doe, in particular, was enraptured by the story of the brave wolf, who had defied every challenge before her to protect others.

'One day, I'll change the world and make it better, just like her!' The young Judy Hopps thought excitedly.

* * *

 **NOTES:**

wait, don't go away yet!  
there's even more!  
Damn, this story has more post-cradits scenes than a Marvel movie...


	5. Epilogue II

**THE LAST ORDER**

It was over and doctor Yazdogsky didn't know how he should feel. On one paw he was grateful for the fact that Laika had no longer to suffer in the lonely space capsule multiple miles above the earth, but on the other paw he felt so empty and powerless for the fact that he had not been able to save her.

It was almost three in the morning and with him were only two more engineers, who monitored the course of the remaining rocket. Dead tired, the doctor stood up from his chair, "Please, keep an eye on her...I know it's...over, but you know what I mean. I will speak tomorrow to the higher ups and try my best to persuade them about the things that happened here."

The other two, a brown bear and deer with large antlers, just nodded and turned with a sad gaze back to their monitors. The doctor decided to take a last look at his patients in the infirmary before trying to get some sleep.

Two soldiers stood in front of the door to the station who guarded the place, when the doctor approached both of them saluted him. He didn't know exactly how it had happened but since his attack against Tuskenko, the power of command had switched over to him. A fact that he didn't like much, but for now it had to make it work. He saluted back and entered the infirmary.

On the right side laid Alexei, who had no longer a bullet in his leg but a lot sedative medicine in his body. The doctor knew that he wouldn't wake up so soon and somehow, he envied the young Snow Leopard. Because he knew what would happen when his own head would hit the pillow, there would be just one mammal on his mind – Laika.

The little hedgehog lady was still unconscious and for now it was better to keep it that way. The wound she had received to her head was not severe but injuries to the brain should never be taken lightly. Beside her laid Albina, still sitting nervous in her bed and waiting for someone to clear up her mind about Laika's situation. With pleading eyes she looked at the doctor and he began walking over to her bed.

"Doc?" Albina, the proud polar vixen, asked in a meek voice, which was weakened by tears and hours of sobbing. Doctor Yazdogsky took the paw of Albina and gave it a gentle squeeze, together with smile that felt for him incredible wrong at this moment.

"She has no longer to suffer, my dear. It's over...for better or for worse."

Albina didn't reply. She just nodded and pulled her paw back. It didn't take long before she turned away from the doctor, facing her unconscious friend in the bed beside hers. The dhole understood that she needed some time to herself and walked to the end of the hall, where his last patient was laying in a bed, handcuffed to the frame and guarded by a privacy screen.

After ten more beds he reached General Tuskenko who was, to the doctor's surprise, awake. His face looked still terrible and some of the wounds were still slightly bleeding, but the boar had refused every sedative that had been offered to him.

The doctor stood on a small stool beside Tuskenko's bed and looked with a grim face at him, "It's done, Oleg. She's dead. Are you happy now?"

"No but it was a needed exchange. One life sacrificed, for so many we can maybe save," The General replied and shifted slightly in his bed, but the handcuffs on both sides prevented him from moving too much.

"Today, there was one life we could have saved for sure. But instead, we gave in to your delusions. That 'they' are out there. That 'they' are watching us…," The doctor shook his head and crossed his arms in front of his chest. He didn't know what he awaited, but without being asked, the General began to talk.

"Half a year ago, before all of this here started, I was ordered to Furmanova from the president himself. For a whole month there had been no communication and no response from a little military base with at least 2000 thousand soldiers, on the outskirt of our nation. Not far away from the eastern states. What do you think I have found there?" The General spoke slowly and turned his head just towards Doctor Yazdogsky, when he had ended.

The Doctor, however, had no interest at all in such games and sighed annoyed before he answered the question, "I don't know? Signs of a battle? Wounded soldiers? If there are 2000 mammals...then there should be at least someone left."

"Nobody. The base was empty and there were no signs of a battle or even one mammal left, but everything else was untouched. The weaponry, the tanks, airplanes, defenses, the clothes of the soldiers, everything was there. We found no signs of mass graves or similar things. They were just gone and we had no idea what had happened. It was as if the Goddesses had themselves come down on earth and wiped everyone out. Now tell me, Vladimir, what on earth could do something like this?"

"I...I have no idea," The Doctor had to admit and asked himself if what he just heard was the truth or some elaborate excuse for Laika's death.

The General turned his head back to the end of the bed and stared at nothing in particular.

"There was only one hint and it was written in the diary of the leading Colonel of the base. Colonel Medjew, a good mammal and brave soldier. Who was always careful with his subordinates but never fast with his gun. He liked to think about a situation before he did something...not the best precondition for a soldier."

"What was in the diary?"

"Just two sentences as the final entry: The Last Order was here. Dissolve your Country! And from there on we found more and more evidences for their existence. Notes with their name appeared in top secret files, mammals disappear and more bases were found empty."

Doctor Vladimir Yazdogsky had never before heard such a story or even the name the Last Order. He shook his head and couldn't stop to search for a solution. But whatever he thought of it made no sense and so he came to the conclusion that only one explanation could fit. It was a lie.

"No, that can't be true...that's ridiculous."

"Go to my room and search for a case file with the title TLO incidents. There you can read everything about it!"

The doctor stood up from the little stool and looked angry at the boar, "Oh I will do this but I know what I will find. Tse, even now, after Laika died for your plans. You still insist in those lies about an almighty organization? For once in your life, Oleg, take responsibilities for the things you did!"

The dhole was already walking away when, he made a sudden turn and shouted a last sentence at the General, "You've send Laika to her death and now you try to excuse yourself with some fairytales and urban legends? Even if all you are saying was true, you had no right to take her life! You could have come up with dozens of other options, yet you decided to go with the faster one, and Laika paid the price for that decision you made! I'm done with you and I hope I'll never have to talk to you again!"

The doctor walked away from the boar, leaving him alone in the darkness of the nightly infirmary. The General could nothing do but shook his head about the dhole, when he recognized that someone was standing at the end of his bed. His eyes needed a moment to adjust to the darkness, but when they did he saw green eyes glimmer in the darkness like emeralds and a small to midsize mammal in the white cloth of a doctor. It was a fox, whom he had never seen before and who slowly walked up to his side.

"Good morning, Mr. Tuskenko."

"Who...who are you?"

The fox was young and not older than thirty. His whole face was stern when he talked, "You can call me Alpha and I'm just here for a short visit."

"A-a-about what?" The General, a soldier with many years of experienced, was almost in blind panic about this unknown visitor.

"About your end. You see, we can't afford that people talk to much about us...and I have to apologize because of the case file. Your old friend Vladimir Yazdogsky will find nothing and probably keep you in memory as a liar. But I guess, a lot of mammals will take your end just as the fair punishment for Laika's unnecessary death. There will be not a lot of question. Sleep well, General."

The fox held a syringe in his pocket and without any hesitation, the fox who called himself Alpha injected the substance to the General. Tuskenko felt how his eyes became incredible heavy. A minute later he was unconscious and another ten minutes before his heart stopped beating. When he was found in the morning, there was just him, but no fox.

* * *

 **NOTES:**

Okay, you might be a bit confused right now  
What the hell is this?!  
Well it's time for the big plot twist: Laika is actually a tie-in to Ansem's story "Two of a Kind", that you can find here: s/12564197/1/Two-of-a-Kind  
In fact, this last chapter was written by Ansem himself.  
The events of my story will actually have an important impact later in the story of my dear friend, just you wait!  
In the meantime, check out his awesome story!

Finally, thanks to everyone who followed me on this journey!  
A big hug to you all!  
See you to the next story!


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